Follow PR Daily on:

10 Nora Ephron quotes that will inspire anyone

Writer Nora Ephron died on Tuesday at the age of 71 after a six-year battle with leukemia. Whether or not you realize it, Ephron’s work influenced screenwriters and movie-goers, not to mention generations of women.

Her films such as “When Harry Met Sally” and “Sleepless in Seattle” defined the romantic comedy genre, while her other films as well as plays and countless essays covered a range of topics, many of them personal, including her relationships. After all, Ephron’s mother once told her, “Everything is copy.”

We went looking for useful and insightful quotes on writing from Ephron, because she was so prolific. We found a few good ones, but more important, we discovered a trove of sayings on various topics that could inspire anyone—from writers and editors to journalists and even PR pros (and everyone in between).

“[She] really conveyed to us that work was a great passion; that you couldn’t live without work. When you were asked what you were going to be when you grow up, the question was answered in terms of work—not in terms of motherhood or being married—it was what are you going to do.”

On Journalism

From the same Charlie Rose interview, she discussed her journalism career:

“[Journalism] is the greatest job. I loved it. I think it is a fantastic job. Now I kind of look back on it the way you look back on someone you were once in love with that you bump into and you think, what did I ever see in him?”

“Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I've accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. Reading makes me smarter. Reading gives me something to talk about later on. Reading is the unbelievably healthy way my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it's a way of making contact with someone else's imagination after a day that's all too real. Reading is grist. Reading is bliss.”

“Help! I’m drowning. I have 112 unanswered email messages. I’m a writer—imagine how many unanswered messages I would have if I had a real job. Imagine how much writing I could do if I didn’t have to answer all this email. My eyes are dim. I have a mild case of carpal tunnel syndrome. I have a galloping case of attention deficit disorder because every time I start to write something, the email icon starts bobbing up and down and I’m compelled to check whether anything good or interesting has arrived. It hasn’t. … In the brief time it took me to write this paragraph, three more messages arrived. Now I have 115 unanswered messages. Strike that: 116.”

“A lot of college graduates approach me about becoming screenwriters. I tell them, ‘Do not become a screenwriter, become a journalist,’ because journalists go into worlds that are not their own. Kids who go to Hollywood write coming-of-age stories for their first scripts, about what happened to them when they were sixteen. Then they write the summer camp script. At the age of twenty-three they haven’t produced anything, and that’s the end of the career.”

Ephron’s second marriage was to journalist Carl Bernstein; it ended when she discovered that he was cheating on her—while she was pregnant with their second child. Her book (and subsequent movie starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep), “Heartburn,” is based on their relationship.

“Oh, how I regret not having worn a bikini for the entire year I was twenty-six. If anyone young is reading this, go, right this minute, put on a bikini, and don't take it off until you're thirty-four.”

“My mother didn’t serve Yorkshire pudding, although there is a recipe for it on page 61 of ‘The Gourmet Cookbook.’ My mother served potato pancakes instead. I serve Yorkshire pudding and potato pancakes. Why not? You live once."